directly, and that she was loth to believe evil of her cousin until it could be proved. Yet she was evidently strongly impressed, and gave orders for Sutton's personal protection. The inquiry dragged on for more than two years, Sutton reiterating his charges and Kildare thwarting him in various ways. The Earl's service, he said, had all been at the Queen's expense, for he received the pay of 300 men, which he made the country support. Jobbing was universal, and no one was more concerned in maintaining the system than Kildare. Yet Sutton's heart began to sink: he complained that he was too poor to strive with the powerful Earl, and that all his exertions had but served to excite his vengeance. He probably failed to prove his whole case, but Sidney was directed to make particular inquiry, and not to discourage Sutton. Yet he too was evidently prejudiced in the Earl's favour, and recommended him for a garter. In this he relied on the authority of Henry VII., 'who made his grandfather knight and wist full well what he did'--an ominous precedent and an argument unworthy of Sidney. Cecil evidently believed in Sutton, and begged Sidney to befriend him, even if in some degree deserving of blame. That he was not altogether ruined is shown by his appearance in 1571 as plaintiff in a successful Chancery suit; but he failed in making any serious impression on Kildare's position.[146] [Sidenote: Sir Peter Carew.] It was at this critical period that the English Government thought fit to allow an enterprise, the success of which was enough to make the great mass of Irish and Anglo-Irish landlords shake in their shoes. The adventurer was Sir Peter Carew, of Mohuns Ottery in Devon, who, at the age of fifty-four, set himself a task more arduous than any which had yet occupied his stormy and eventful life. [Sidenote: His early life.]